Baseball is filled with quirky and archaic traditions that sometimes feel outdated. But there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned national anthem standoff. Unfortunately, however, this one proved to be costly.
Ahead of Saturday’s matchup between the Red Sox and Phillies in Philadelphia, Boston reliever Kutter Crawford and former teammate Matt Strahm, now with the Phillies, were fined and ejected for a rather long standoff. The amount of the fines have not been reported.
Crawford is on the injured list, meaning his fine will be significantly heftier than Strahm’s, but he’ll apparently have some help paying it, according to Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
We have an old fashioned standoff between Kutter Crawford and @mattstrahm … pic.twitter.com/InglMFjufR
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) May 6, 2023
“I know there’s a guy that went to the same school as him that’s probably going to take care of that,” Cora said, per the New York Post.
Cora was referring to Chris Sale, who like Crawford, attended Florida Gulf Coast University. Sale is slated to earn $27.5 million this season, in contrast to Crawford’s $730,000 salary.
After the incident, Strahm explained what how the lengthy standoff came to pass.
“Zero of it was planned,” Strahm said. “Anthem was over and I looked across, and Kutter kind of gave me a grin and I knew exactly what that grin meant so [I] just stood there.”
Matt Strahm explains what happened in pregame standoff with Kutter Crawford: pic.twitter.com/sHWF6g4UBS
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) May 7, 2023
